Information Technology

UK experts develop super-realistic animation system

Computing experts at Cardiff University, UK, are developing a super-realistic animation system that simulates the movements of a face, based on speech. The team in the School of Computer Science has developed highly advanced software which is continually learning the facial dynamics associated with a speaker and applying this knowledge to synthesize realistic facial animations.

“Our aim is to create sophisticated facial a

A new method for navigation at sea, independent of GPS, is being put forward in a dissertation from Linköping University.

Today merchant marine, military, and recreational boat traffic all rely on the global satellite system GPS to determine their position at sea. But sometimes information from the system is incorrect. Poor visibility or lax attention can then spell disaster.

GPS can be jammed, either unintentionally or intentionally. Signals from the satellites can

The ICT sector has been selected as one of Finland’s five technology focus areas for the future, according to a recent report produced by the country’s National Technology Agency, Tekes. The aim is to ensure that Finland continues to be a leader in the extensive use of ICT.

The Tekes report proposes focusing on ICT services, user-friendliness, knowledge and content management, and making greater use of ICT in real-life applications benefiting people in their day-to-day life and bu

Terrier, a new cutting-edge software for the rapid development of web, intranet and desktop search engines, developed by researchers at the University of Glasgow, has all the prerequisites to become the European answer to Google.

This groundbreaking system from DCS utilises state-of-the-art web search technology. It offers a modular platform for the rapid development of large-scale Information Retrieval applications. Providing indexing and retrieval functionalities, Terrier comes wi

Websites for commuters are nothing new, but researchers in Sunnyvale, Calif., have developed an advanced system with a twist: in addition to tracking traffic congestion, the program crunches data from 14,000 sensors, in some cases every 30 seconds, to decipher evolving rush-hour patterns.

The end result is http://www.BeatTheTraffic.com, a tool that tells commuters how long they can expect to sit in their cars, which shortcuts will get them home faster that day, and even the bes

A novel, computer-assisted method for colorizing black and white images and movies has been developed by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering.

The method is less expensive and time-consuming than earlier colorization methods developed in the late 20th century and which were used to convert to color several classic black-and-white motion pictures such as “Casablanca.”

A major difficulty with colorization ha